


Consumed

by extradimensional



Category: Thor (Movies), Thor-All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Major Character Injury, Sibling Incest, Temporary Character Death, The Vampire AU no one asked for, Vampire Thor (Marvel), Vampires, dubious consent due to vampire activities, how many times can i say vampires in these tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2019-12-18 14:43:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 19,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18251939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/extradimensional/pseuds/extradimensional
Summary: Lifting his head, black hair getting stuck in the mixture of water and tears running down his cheeks, Loki saw the shadow of a tall man. Another flash of lightning, so brief, illuminated the scene: short blond hair, blue eyes, a stance that looked like he was about to kill. But then the light disappeared again. Loki closed his eyes.“Ghosts don’t exist. You’re just losing your mind."





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a note: a few chapters of this story were originally posted about a year ago. As I continued writing, it became clear to me that this was a story focusing on a romantic relationship between Thor and Loki. I deleted the original story in order to make sure those reading it knew what they were getting from the start. 
> 
> Anyway, on we go.

To sit on the edge of a cliff and look down used to be frightening. Loki could recall such memories in only hazy details. Now, as he sat in that same place, the cold weather whipping his hair back, the idea of a fall seemed like a release.

Release from him. Release from the eternity that seemed to smack Loki in the face, even when he was still mortal. But for how long? Perhaps that was the worst part. Not knowing when. Not knowing when they would strike. Not knowing when He would—-

“Loki!” A hand landed swiftly on his shoulder in a brotherly gesture. Loki flinched. He still wasn’t used to that.

“Loki, why do you run off to such random places? I told you we’d be meeting tonight.”

Loki snorted. “No, Thor. You said that you would find me. There is quite a difference.” He could never out run his older brother. His dead older brother.

“Nevermind that. We have found each other anyway. I have a... colleague who-- He wants to meet you.”

Loki quietly turned to look at his brother. It was like looking at a slightly edited photograph taken from their mother’s stash of family photos. There was Thor: blue eyes somehow even bluer, blond hair short now, a grin on his face that hardly ever wiped off. Where once, he was deemed attractive by everyone who gaggled at him, now he was flawless. If he didn’t focus on the details, Loki could pretend it was the same person he had seen that night over a decade ago. Those idle thoughts never lasted long though. Thor simply couldn’t allow Loki that comfort apparently. It would only be a second or two into a moment where Loki felt like things were back to normal that Thor would do something suddenly inhuman. It was never something large, but even a single detail can break the best of illusions.

“This 'colleague'. It's that man the Valkyrie girl was talking about, isn't it?”

"You could just call her Valkyrie, you know. She's a good friend and it wouldn't hurt to have someone else on our side."

His brother’s ‘friend’ (the two of them were so obviously fuck buddies that it made Loki want to puke on Thor’s expensive shoes) didn’t seem to like any added company. The only comment she had made to him where insults. Terrible, non witty ones, at that.

“What’s his name again?”

Thor paused before speaking. That gathered Loki’s attention.

“He has a few.”

“May I know at least one, brother mine? It’s sort of rude to show up to meet someone without knowing anything about them.”

Thor said something in a tone below a whisper, if such a thing was possible, as if speaking the name would summon the person attached. As Loki did not have super sonic hearing, it was not helpful in the least. 

“The _what_? Thor, do speak up.”

“The— jesus fuck, Loki. Most people call him the Grandmaster.”

“Well, someone certainly doesn’t have an ego.”

Thor pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Loki…”

His younger brother just batted his eyes innocently. “What? You’re welcome to leave. No one is forcing you here and mom isn’t trying to convince you to drag me to some party. I have my own stuff to do, Thor.”

Swiftly and without warning, Thor grabbed Loki by the shoulder, pulling him upright like a kitten by the nape of their neck. If Loki made the same whining sound, Thor was kind enough not to comment on it.

"What's wrong with you? What's with the attitude? Did something happen?" Thor asked, trying to keep his own worry to a minimum. Loki hadn't been this sore to him since they had...reconnected. 

The wind whipped Loki's dark hair through the cold, but all he could offer his older brother was a shrug.

"I have a very foreboding feeling about all of this that I can't shake. Do we really have to go? Can't we go back to your house instead and hide away from the world for a while?"

Oh, how Thor wished they could do just that. But it was impossible now. They were walking a dangerous bridge, one with rotting wood and an end drench in the dark. With a sad smile, Thor pulled Loki closer as if to offer some comfort that wasn't his to give.

“You’re going. You’ve been requested. You have no choice. Trust me, I wish you did.”

 

 

\----

**13 YEARS PRIOR.**

“Thor, would you listen to your father!”

“All I’ve been doing is listening, mother. Listening solves nothing!”

Loki hated when they fought.

He always wondered why adults thought that just because a kid was out of the room, that they couldn’t hear the conversation. That it wouldn’t screw him up anyway. Thor’s voice boomed, just like their Father’s. It was sort of an Odinson thing . One that Loki didn’t take part in.

He jumped as he heard something SLAM. A fist against the table maybe? It was followed by a heavy silence.

Loki wasn’t exactly sure what had caused this particular fight, but all he knew was that since Thor had started working for dad and had moved out, made some new friends, that he had been acting off. In a good way, in Loki’s opinion. More mature. Like he actually had a brain. As if Loki was actually the 13 year old and Thor was the grown up.

Just a few years before, Thor would have never said a word against their dad. Usually, it brought a smile to Loki’s face, but now? Now Loki was getting worried. The conversations never got this heated. They never fell into such a heavy silence.

Substantial steps fell down the hall towards the front door. Loki sneaked down, tilting his head in an attempt to get a better look. Thor paused on his assent, catching his brother.

“Loki…”

“Yeah?”

Another pause.

“I love you, alright?” Thor gripped the back of Loki’s neck for a second. He nodded in return.

“You too.”

Thor smirked at that, but there was a certain sadness in his eyes that Loki couldn’t place at the time. Hindsight was 20/20. Now Loki knew what that look was for. It was the last time they’d see each other before the ‘accident’. Thor knew it would be fake. Loki sure as hell didn’t.

When he woke up the next morning to his mother’s sobbing instead of her normal kisses and loving taunts to get him out of bed, he knew something had changed for the worse.

When they were told that Thor’s body couldn’t be ‘ repaired ’ enough to have an open casket and it would be better if he was cremated, Loki had managed to keep a straight face.

When they recommended that no one should view Thor’s body because it was so maimed in the car accident, that it would be too traumatic and ‘that’s not how you want to remember your brother—looking like that’, that was the moment that Loki lost it.

That’s when he broke down.

He had cried for three days straight. Through the funeral service. Through the day after. Frigga couldn’t get him to stop. Amora, his best friend, couldn’t even get near him without the sobbing just getting louder. The only one who managed to get through to Loki was, oddly enough, Odin.

He hadn’t said anything, just sat on the bed next to Loki in silence. He seemed to have age 30 years in merely 3 days. Eventually, Loki’s cries turned into small little gasps of breaths.

“Thor always had a plan. I just hope he thought this one through,” Odin said, as if he was describing the weather.

“You’ll see him again one day. But until then, make life interesting. Live a good one. That way you have something to show him and rub in his face later down the road.” Odin stood, placing a hand in Loki’s hair.

“Try to get some rest now. I’ll tell everyone to leave you be.”

Loki fell asleep ten minutes later, his mind so stuck on his father’s odd words that he didn’t even notice the tall blond figure standing outside his window, merely looking in.

\----

Loki did a lot of his studying in Thor’s old room. Frigga refused to clean it out, and Odin couldn’t figure out what they’d do with another extra room anyway, so he went along with it. Loki found it oddly comforting to be around his brother’s leftover things, even though he had moved out years beforehand. Sometimes, when he got too lost in thought, Loki would find himself muttering like Thor was actually there to listen.

“The SATS are fucking terrible. I understand why you whined about studying so much.”

“Should I even bother applying to this school? I know you visited it and thought it wasn’t worth the money but their history program is so good.”

“How the fuck do I tell Dad that I like guys?”

He never got an answer, not really. Sometimes, he liked to think a little too deeply and trick himself into believing that Thor’s ghost would blow a curtain or make something fall off the desk in response to a question.

\----

It wasn’t until Loki moved after graduating and getting a job as a librarian that Odin’s words began ringing true. He was 25 by this time and his life really wasn’t all that interesting. He simply had the need to get out. Home was stifling and he had never really gotten used to the silence that Thor’s death had brought upon the house. Odin and Frigga had seemed to move on the best a parent could when losing a child, but Loki could only pretend. Eventually, people moved on, and to the outside world, Thor never existed at all. Family friends would avoid bringing him up out of a certain ‘kindness’, one Loki couldn’t really comprehend. Pretending something didn’t happen doesn’t mean it never did. It doesn’t fix the pain or fill the void that a loss causes, but merely makes people feel guilty for feeling it. But, for his parents’ sake, Loki tried to be the best child he could be. He knew he could never fill the Thor shaped hole that haunted every space in the house, or that distant look Frigga would get in her eyes sometimes when she thought no one was looking, but the least he could do was not cause them any more pain. He could try.

In return, his parents became much more over protective. Where Thor was allowed to drive himself around practically anywhere as soon as he blew the candles out on his 17th birthday, Loki could only go to school and back home, needing to call and let Frigga know he had arrived at 8:30 on the dot every day. While Thor could go out until 2 am on weekends, Loki needed to be in by 11. Luckily, for everyone involved, Loki was far from the type of person who enjoyed partying in any which way, and would much rather sit at home with a book. Though she didn’t say so, it was obvious how much of a relief this was to Frigga.

Obviously, the decision to move didn’t go over well. Not because of Frigga, surprisingly, who thought it would be good for Loki to get away and live his own life, but by Odin. Loki and his father had never been exactly close, nor had they had too much in common, but at the mention of moving and a job offer, Odin simply left the room.

Loki would have rather he screamed some colourful words in Icelandic.

At least then he could have sat there and rolled his eyes. Or cursed back.

He hadn’t spoken to his father properly since. Work and life in general kept him busy enough. Loki simply kept his head down and did what he needed. Working at a library gave him quite a bit of time to study topics of interest and even more time to go through all the old books held in the building. It became his favourite activity: write a paper, help location some books, and while organizing the shelf, if he so happened to end up in a deserted section that hadn’t had a book checked out of it since 1968, then so be it. Carrying a pile of books on the subway wasn’t exactly easy, but Loki managed. Arms full, he usually managed to make it back to his tiny apartment before collapsing on the bed and digging into whatever random volumes he had discovered that day.

Time passes quickly when a likeable routine takes hold, but time always has a way of reminding you it’s there. Very rarely is it nice. Loki was no exception.

One morning, he was checking a novel out for an older woman, when his eyes landed on the date.

April 14th.

Oh. _Oh._

It was as if his brain was a computer that had shut down and suddenly rebooted again.

Fuck.

He sat at his desk in silence after that, all the colour fading from his face. His stomach felt like a twisted knot. He should get up. He should have a sip of water. Maybe he should ask to go home.

April 14th.

His eyes sat on that date, flashing on his computer screen.

_“Loki…”_

_“Yeah?”_

_“I love you, alright?”_

Brakes screeching in the rain. The road being burned by tires trying desperately to stop. The sound of metal clashing. The last beat of a heart as it gives up.

13 years ago to the day, Thor had died.

And it seemed that the weight of his ghost had managed to follow Loki to his new home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have..............a fuck ton of this already written. It's been a little passion project of mine that I've been hesitating on posting but here we are.


	2. Chapter 2

The one thing that sits true about cities, after all this time, is that you constantly feel alone. You have thousands of strangers always bouncing around you, cursing, angry, and running late. No one is ever on time in a city: it is the unspoken rule.

So, when you have nowhere to go, and find yourself idly walking down the street, a certain sense of restlessness overcomes you. The rotting soul of a dying metropolis pulsing around you, unhappy that you have broken the status quo. Loki hardly cared. He was used to being alone. He normally preferred it. But as the sun set on the ill aging buildings, he found himself longing for attention. Every car that almost hit him (which was with scary regularity and quickly became part of everyday life in such a city) made him sad, not angry. It brought him closer to what Thor must have felt as the life ebbed out of his body. Did it hurt or did it all happen too quickly? Did Thor know he was dying? Did he think of Loki as it was happening? Had he tried to get help, only to be stuck? Did he regret fighting with Dad right before hand?

No . He couldn’t think like this. It would drive him fucking insane. He just needed to continue on with his day. He just needed to give himself a moment to grieve and be done with it.

His feet didn’t seem to agree with him, because within minutes, Loki found himself right outside a small park. It was empty, perhaps overgrown, like no one really cared to go there. A decently clear path was carved out, going well past the swing set and up towards the trees. Feeling the need to walk, to just be not in the midst of everything, Loki opened the latch on the rusted fence and began following the trail aimlessly. He certainly couldn’t go home, not yet. Not with hours to go until he could acceptably fall asleep. The cold wind felt nice on his face anyway. He hardly noticed the way the sky greyed over as the minutes passed, or that the sun was finally setting until he reached the top. The top of what, he wasn’t quite sure. A hill seem not big enough a word to describe what he was standing on, but a cliff made it sound as though a large body of water was rolling underfoot. Still, he sat on the edge, watching the last of the sun flicker away and ignoring the slight trickle of rain. Even when the sky blew up with light and boomed with lightning, Loki didn’t move. It reminded him of home. It made his chest ache. Another burst of thunder appeared, making Loki shiver, as though someone was behind him.

“I miss you,” he whispered to the sky.

“I missed you too,” it boomed back.

Loki jumped so high in surprise that he almost fell off the cliff completely. And that would have been the end of that. But it wasn’t. His fingers clawed into the ground at the last moment as his heart leaped into his mouth. But his fingers couldn’t get enough purchase to exactly pull himself upwards. Was the fall far? He couldn’t remember. It couldn’t be. He’d likely fall a few feet, right?

Lifting his head, black hair getting stuck in the mixture of water and tears running down his cheeks, Loki saw the shadow of a tall man. Another flash of lightning, so brief, illuminated the scene: short blond hair, blue eyes, a stance that looked like he was about to kill. But then the light disappeared again. Loki closed his eyes.

“Ghosts don’t exist. You’re just losing your mind,” Loki whispered, fighting with himself if he should look down or up.

The being seemed to willingly ignore this, moving closer inch by painful inch. Suddenly, a warm large hand grabbed his own and yanked him upwards, back to the safety of the good, hard ground.

That’s when Loki finally looked down: Okay. Yes. Maybe that fall wasn’t enough to kill him right off the bat. But if he fell, and no one found him...mixed with the rain...but his mind was ripped away from that notion as the stranger spoke:

“Did you come here because it reminds you of the park by that old school house? Where we’d go and watch the sunset because you were too little to go bike riding and I didn’t want to leave you alone? I come here for that reason. Quite a bit.”

Loki winced. That voice. He really was losing his mind. It wasn’t the first time he had imagined Thor somehow contacting him from beyond the grave, but he never had seen him before.

“Please, go away. I don’t need to hear you and see you. You’re not real .” He leaned forward, nails sinking into the wet grass as he laid on his side. He pulled his knees to his chest. This is it. This is where I die. And I don’t have an interesting story to tell like Dad told me to, wherever I go next.

“Loki…” the man bent down.

“Loki, it’s me. Truly.” Thor grabbed one of Loki’s hands and put it to his pulse point. A solid heart beat.

“You... died . I saw you.”

Thor sighed, pulling off his scarf and wrapping it around Loki’s neck.

“No. You were told I died. There’s a difference. Come on, you can’t be out in the cold like this. You’ll get sick.”

Loki wanted to fight as strong hands picked him up, pulling him from the dirty ground, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t. Not when he saw that face again. His brother.

“How?”

Thor gently shushed him, as though Loki was a kicked puppy, easily frightened.

“Later. But I’m alive. I’m not a ghost. I promise.”

“What are you then?”

“Later.”

Somehow, and Loki wasn’t sure how, he ended up in his own bed, sobbing for reasons he wasn’t quite sure about. Loki generally wasn’t a crier. He much rather keep his emotions pushed down until he exploded, thank you very much. But he could feel Thor’s weight next to him, the way Loki clung to his hand as if he let go, Thor would be dead again.

_ Dontgodontgodontgodontgo. _

Did he chant that out loud? He couldn’t recall. But somewhere in between finally grieving for the brother he may not have actually lost, Loki fell into a deep black hole of sleep. When he awoke, the space next to him was completely empty. Cold. So was the chair. It had been a dream, of course it had been. The sudden pain of that creeped into his shoulders as he went into the kitchen to make coffee. His world felt fragile before, but know it seemed made of glass. If he felt anything to hard, he’d crack. He’d die.

It wasn’t until he was eating some toast that Loki noticed something out of place. A red scarf sitting on the back of his dining room chair. His fingers gently slid over it. It was expensive, Loki could tell from the material, and finely made. Most importantly, it was not Loki’s. That was when his gaze fell on something else too. Besides the scarf, on the back of an envelope, sat a short note.

_ I’m sorry. I got called away. Try to sleep. _

_ And not to get pneumonia. Again. _

_ -T _

Loki sat down, the world spinning.

Maybe he hadn’t been dreaming after all.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Loki found himself walking to work that afternoon, wrapped up warm and trying not to cough. Some tea had helped, and sleep would help even more, but he couldn’t miss his shift. Not when he had things to do. He refused to be one of those idiotic cliches and type in the word ‘vampire’ or ‘demon’ in a search engine and let that be the extent of his research. So, instead, he slyly dedicated the day to ‘reorganizing’ the mythology section of the library. Most of the books were old and pointless, some simply referenced movies, but Loki quickly made his way through the other shelves of regurgitated, non-creative bullshit. Running out of options, and perhaps ingrained into him due to their father, Loki grabbed a book on Nordic history. It was old, as dated by the fact that the card within it listed the last due date was from 1959. For some odd reason, the library had not thrown it out. With a few minutes of digging, Loki landed on a chapter about the dead. Viking funerals...Hel...Valhalla... Draugr:

_A Dragur is a reanimated corpse, come back to life to guard something important or gain revenge, as there is something keeping the soul from passing over. The direct translation of a dragur is an ‘again-walker’. Dragurs are often related to the more wide-spread term of ‘vampires’ or ‘zombies’, due to the fact that they can turn others into their kind._

And that was it.

Something that was dead and brought back, for some purpose. Well, wasn’t that vague at best. He looked at a few other books, encasing himself within a circle of different volumes as the hours ticked by. It seemed that, based on literature, there was only two options:

Thor was a zombie or a vampire.

Last time he checked (and he really had not be all that coherent when Thor had found him), his brother did not have rotting flesh nor had tried to eat his brain. At the same time, Thor didn’t exactly match what the definition of a vampire was either. Loki continued the search, growing more frustrated with each book, until he heard someone clear their throat in front of him. Closing the current book harshly and yanking his head up, Loki was welcomed by the sight of his dead (undead? Sort of dead?) older brother. Thor was extremely good at being a cliche when it came to timing. Were they in a horror movie or something?

“Hey, Loki. Nice scarf.”

Loki brought his hand to his neck, completely forgetting about the red scarf wrapped tightly around it.  

“You left it.” Loki said, his voice nasally as he nearly choked on the accumulating gunk dripping down the back of his throat.

“I’m aware." Thor leaned down and stole the book from Loki’s hands. “What are you doing, little brother?” Thor looked at the title with a smirk.

“What are you doing here, Thor? I’m working.” Loki narrowed his eyes.

“Coming to take you home since I know you’re sick.”

Loki wanted to bite him.

“In case you haven’t noticed, I survived a solid 13 years without your guidance. I’m pretty sure I can worry about my own health.”

Thor gently placed the book down, his eyes running over the titles of the others. Loki felt the judgement begin to burn its way into his pale cheeks as if he was guilty was something other than innocent research.

“We both know that’s a lie,” Thor stated, matter of factly.

“It is not a--” Loki paused, eyes glaring into his brother’s. Straight up hostility would not help the situation, he decided.

“---Thor, it is not that I don’t wish to see you, or speak to you, because I do. I also want to hit you over the head. But I’m working. And seeing the ghost of your dead brother isn’t a great excuse for a sick day.”

“I’m not a ghost.”

“Zombie?”

“No.”

“Demon?”

“Nope.”

“Vampire.”

Thor hesitated, shifting his weight.

“Can we not have this discussion here, Loki?” he asked.

Oh. Oh god, he’s a vampire. No wonder he still looks so young.

But Loki managed, he thought, to hold it together and save that specific break down for a different time.

“Of course, Thor. Pick a time after five and I’d be delighted to hear of your faked death.”

Thor folded his arms before grinning.

“No need. I talked to you boss and told her you’re feeling really sick. To the point where I needed to pick you up and take you home.”

“I am not---” Cough. Another cough. “--sick!” Loki hissed.

“You are. And you’re likely in shock, even if you hide it well. You can come back to my place. I have tea from London that taste like cotton candy.”

“Thor, I am not a child! You cannot bribe me with---cotton candy? That’s just  flavoured sugar, how can tea be possibly taste anything like that?”

“You’re never going to find out unless you get away from your pile of likely outdated books. Will you not humour me for a while? C’mon, Loki.” Thor said.

With a grumble, Loki pushed himself off the floor. He did have a ton of questions to ask, and another cup of tea would feel nice on his throat. He also wanted to see where the hell Thor had been staying all this time. Thor smiled in response to this sight, his grin too wide for Loki’s liking, as though he had won a prize out of Loki's hesitant assent.

Loki went to grab his things from the back, leaving Thor to quietly stand by the front desk. Of course, in the two minutes it took for Loki to get his bag and coat, Thor had managed to charm the head librarian.

“Loki, I had no idea you had an older brother. Where have you been hiding him?” the older woman asked, eyes not too coyly looking at Thor’s arms. Good god. Does Thor opening his mouth not completely negate his looks? Apparently not.

“Oh, Thor is like a ghost. We can never keep track of him. Sometimes I think he must be dead.” Even Thor cannot hold back a snort as Loki dragged him out of the building, Thor waving to the nice woman as they head into the street. Thor instantly started leading the way, humming to himself as Loki glowered. They finally paused in front of a car, a green Bel Air, to be exact, Loki almost falling directly into Thor’s back.

“You would,” Loki said.

“Would what?”

“Have this type of car.” Loki opened the door, folding himself into the passenger’s seat.

“What car did you think I would have?”

“I don’t know. A Honda? Something too tiny for you, so you have to sort of bend yourself to get into and are constantly hitting your head on.”

Thor smirked, annoyingly giving no verbal response before putting the car in reverse and taking off well over the speed limit.

\----

Thor’s house (and it was a house, surprisingly enough) was just outside the city. Quaint from the outside, easily enough to forget. Loki wasn’t sure what he’d thought he’d find: an abandoned mansion, a high rise worth well over a few million, maybe something with a wolf howling behind it. Instead, it was a simple red house, sat by itself on a side road. Thor pushed open the front door, pulling off his coat and throwing it on the couch. Loki looked around: it was much more modern looking on the inside than out. The walls were mostly a dark grey, the doors automatically locked by themselves after a few seconds (which was something Loki did not really want to think of the purpose of), a large television sat pinned to the wall across from a even large sofa, one that was more than capable of holding someone Thor’s size.

It was obvious Thor wasn’t struggling.

“Sit. Make yourself at home. I’ll make some tea,” Thor said. Loki did as he was told, sinking into the remarkably comfy couch. He could so easily fall asleep right in that spot. There was a certain level of safety that seemed to come with being in his big brother’s presence, like nothing could possibly hurt him. This, in combination of lack of sleep and being sick, made it not such a surprise that Loki’s eyes shot open the moment he heard a clink of tea cup on the coffee table. He opened his mouth to defend himself, about to argue that he was not sleeping and had just been closing his eyes, but he quickly saw that there was no need.

Thor made no comment. He simply put three cubes of sugar into Loki’s cup, one into his own, and slid a warm plate towards his brother.

“Mom’s sugar cookies?”

Thor nodded, taking a bite of one while pouring his own tea.

“I made them last night. It’s one of the only recipes I actually have memorized.”

Loki stared down at the plate, fingers hesitating. Mom. They weren’t there just hanging out, two brothers catching up. No, Mom thought Thor was dead. Loki had thought the same less than 24 hours ago.

“What are you?” The question came out sharper than Loki had meant as he placed his shaking hand back by his side. He deserved to know that much.

“A vampire.” Thor said it with a wince, as if Loki was about to strike him.

“And if I don’t believe you?”

“Well, that’s your choice, little brother. I have the death certificate and fangs to prove it.”

Loki closed his eyes, a headache panging in the front of his skull. It was the fever, most likely. The fever he didn’t want to admit he had, which was a part of the illness he refused to believe in catching. He only opened his eyes when he felt a cool hand on his forehead, Thor on a knee in front of him.

“You’re burning up.”

“And you’re acting as though you haven’t been gone for 13 years. You can’t just jump right back into my life.” Loki said, even he knew his tone was lacking conviction.

“I can if would just let me. No more secrets, Loki. I’m sick of them.”

Loki imagined himself on that cliff again, the one back home. It seemed like he had two choices: he could either back away slowly from the darkness that lay below, the vast unknown of a situation bigger than him, or he could trust the call of a familiar voice possibly laying at the bottom, screaming at him to come down. Either he could pretend nothing had happened, and always feel something missing for the rest of his years, or possibly fling himself to death by a trusting word.

Without a second thought, Loki jumped.

\----

The car accident had happened, but Thor knew it wouldn’t kill him. That was part of the plan. He had been warned, prior to even being turned, that he’d have to fake his death sometime. It just so happened that the date and event Thor had picked correlated with a family fight between himself and Odin.

Thor wasn’t exactly thrilled to tell Loki that bit. But surprisingly, Loki seemed to take it well. Or...at least silently. He was staring into space a lot, but Thor wasn’t sure if he should blame that on the fever or the confession.

It felt good to let it all out, to admit to someone from his past life what had happened, where he had been. To not hide anymore. Well, he hadn’t exactly been hiding, moreso moving...alot...in an attempt not to get caught. For a while, Thor had debated becoming a sheep herder in Scandinavia, but he was scared shitless that somehow Odin would find him accidentally amidst multiple countries during one of his father's yearly visits to his hometown. 

But going into that much detail was for another time. He tucked a blanket around Loki, whose eyes were now closing and snapping open every few seconds. He deserved a nap. Thor had scared the shit out him, almost pushed him off over a high edge, and gotten him sick all in one night. He honestly did not know anyone whose body could cultivate germs as quickly as Loki. It was a skill in its own way. But, as fucked up as it was to admit it, Thor was glad. Loki being ill, even if Thor was being a bit dramatic and overbearing about it, gave him an excuse to get close to Loki, to build that trust back up again that had been destroyed all those years ago. It wouldn’t be an overnight thing, Thor wasn’t naive enough to think that, but it could be a solid base at the least.

Thor sat next to Loki as his brother slept, watching two ladies trying to sell some sort of super blender on the shopping network for a solid hour before his phone rang. His eyes instantly went over to Loki, who didn’t budge an inch. With a groan, Thor pushed himself up and walked into the kitchen, pulling out his cellphone in one go.

“Odinson,” he said, not bothering to look at the number.

“Hey blondie, wanna do a job tonight?” Valkyrie. One of the better people who actually had his phone number.

“Who is it for exactly? I’m sort of preoccupied for the evening,” Thor popped his head out, once again making sure Loki was still out.

“The Grandmaster. Seems pretty easy, if you can call off your date night or whatever you do in your spare time. I’m not your keeper.”

“Fuck no. I can’t stand that guy.”

“Yeah. Good idea. Get on the bad side of one of, if not the most powerful vampires. That’s totally going to end well. You know he could snap you like a toothpick, right?”

Thor snorted in reply.

“I’d like to see him try.”

“Oh, would you? Then keep doing what you’re doing. You’re certainly on the right track.”

Thor sighed: “I have a guest, alright? It would be rude to leave him---them.”

“Normally I would question what the fuck you’re even talking about, since I’m basically your only relevant friend, but I really don’t have the fucking energy or time. I’ll make some lame ass excuse up for you, but don’t get used to it.”

“Thanks Va---Valkyrie?” He stared at the receiver of the phone. Did she just hang up on him? Again?

“Who was that?”

Thor whipped his head up to see Loki standing directly behind him, wrapped up in a blanket pulled taut around his face. How the fuck could Loki sneak up on him? Shaking his head and putting that aside for later, Thor put his phone down.

“Work. Wanted to know if I wanted to come tonight and do some stuff. I gracefully declined.”

Loki nodded. “If I’m keeping you…”

“No! No, you’re not keeping me at all, Loki. I’m the one that dragged you from work, remember?” Thor moved forward, placing a hand on his brother’s forehead.

“You’re still burning up. I think I have some cold medicine around here somewhere.”

Loki simply watched Thor fumble around the kitchen, face blank.

“Do vampires get colds?” he asked.

“Uh, no. Not exactly. But I’m not the best sleeper and cold medicine helps if I down half a bottle. Ah ha! And it’s not expired!” Thor pushed everything in the cabinet back in and closed it, wiggling the bottle of cold medicine in front of his brother’s nose. Loki grabbed it with a flourish.

“If I take this, you might as well go to work. I’ll be out of it within the hour.”

“Not if you take a normal dose.”

“I get high on normal doses of anything, Thor.”

Thor sighed, grabbing the bottle back and reading the directions on the label. He (carefully) poured the right dose (2 tsp, no more than 3 doses a day) into the little plastic cup and slid it over to his brother. Loki simply picked it up and stared at the dark red liquid for a second.

“What do you do for work?” he asked as he downed the whole thing like a shot, leaving him sputtering because even cheap vodka tasted better than that shit.

Thor hesitated.

“Business. I make sure products end up at the right place.”

“Illegally?”

“No---yes---sort of. I try not to ask too many questions.”

Thor waited patiently for a bad reaction, but Loki’s eyes seemed to stay completely neutral.

“That’s probably for the better. What was the job for tonight?”

Thor tapped his fingers on the counter top.

“I’m not too sure. Only that I was requested by one of the---I guess you could call him a ‘higher up’. Or the highest up, as he basically owns half the city in one way or another. Maybe the state.”

Loki hummed. “Sounds like someone who's good side you should probably stay on then.”

“I was never on his good side. If I wasn’t useful to him or my distaste for his existence didn’t bring him some sort of entertainment, he’d likely have already buried me in a ditch somewhere. You know, I’ve actually heard of him doing that: Ordering vampires to be buried alive. Keep in mind, it’s not like humans. Sure, it would be a slow, painful death for a mortal, but for a vampire?” Thor paced around his kitchen, rummaging through the refrigerator and then a cabinet, pouring his little brother a cool glass of water.  

“They wouldn’t actually die. I’m pretty sure they eventually go sort of comatose, from lack of blood or air. And then, and this is the most fucked up part, only he knows the exact locations where these people are buried. So then he sends people on a literal treasure hunt to find these makeshift graves.  Who ever wins gets a prize, whoever loses gets murdered, and the people in the middle get to live.”

“Well,” Loki stated, his hands tucked under his chin. “You have to stay on top somehow, I suppose. More of a reason for you to go tonight.”

Thor froze. It was the last thing he really wanted to come out of Loki's mouth. 

“No. End of story. I’m not going.”

He moved back over to his brother, gently pulling him up by the elbow. “And you’re going to sleep in an actual bed and not the couch. When you wake up, we’ll eat chicken soup and not worry about psychopathic vampire masters.”

Loki just let himself be dragged and tucked into an extremely soft bed.

“Whatever you say, Thor.”


	4. Chapter 4

Loki, for possibly one of the first days of his life, slept until the sun was setting. He woke up to a pillow covered in drool, hair sticking up sideways, and a thirst that he was pretty sure chugging a swimming pool couldn’t quench. 

 

He could have sworn he had only slept a few hours, the room being void of light basically confirming it. It wasn’t until he turned his head to look at the clock that he realized he wasn’t alone. Thor was there. Thor was there, sleeping---except Loki never remember him sleeping exactly like _ that.  _ The Thor he knew slept on his stomach, legs flailing out and always managing to take up an extraordinary amount of space. He also snored. Not to mention that Thor was also surprisingly a light sleeper, where as Loki was equivalent to trying to wake a...corpse. A corpse. That’s what Thor currently looked like, laying completely straight on his back, almost in a perfect position as if he was posed prior. Yet, not many people dressed their dead in sweatpants and a band t-shirt. 

 

Loki sneaked over to the window, pulling back what he now saw were heavy blackout curtains, probably custom made, to physically wince at the small amount of sunshine that crept through. His head ached something terrible. 

 

So off Loki went to try to make some coffee. Obsessing over Thor’s newly found method of sleep wouldn’t solve anything and he doubted it was going to be the weirdest thing he’d discover. But, and he was hard pressed to admit it, the last few days hadn’t been nearly as awkward as he had thought they’d be. Thor seemed to be basically the same guy Loki remembered, if not more mature, and he seemed to genuinely care about his little brother’s well being. That was...the most shocking. Being cared for. Having someone text to see how you were and getting worried when you didn’t come home on time. 

 

Somehow Loki had ended up coming over Thor’s house more and more, both brothers finding excuses for Loki to stay. 

 

Loki’s work was closer from Thor’s house: It wasn’t. 

 

Loki had to do some laundry and Thor had a really nice washing machine: plausible.  

 

Thor had made too much food and needed someone to come over and eat it: the worst, since that night Loki found out Thor could only eat food in really small quantities else he’d vomit. 

 

Illusions were a lot of work and excuses weren’t Thor’s forte. Yet here they were, finally stopping with little side way truths and just letting life happen. Which, in its own right, was scary. Loki didn’t trust life not to fuck him sideways. 

 

Yet here  _ he _ was, drinking really fancy coffee in his dead brother’s kitchen. 

 

That peace was utterly broken when a few minutes later, a loud pounding on the front door commenced, followed by the lock clicking open. 

 

It all happened too fast for Loki to really react properly and the only thing around his vicinity was the spoon he had stirred his coffee with. He stuck it up in front of him, frozen like a fuzzy little animal caught in front of a much bigger predator, only flinching when the intruder turned around the corner.

 

“ “Thor! You asshole,” a pause as her head whipped around. A woman, maybe in her 30’s, dressed like she had just came from the gym. She looked like she could be the shit out of him and Loki suddenly wished for a bigger spoon. 

 

“Who are you?” she asked, almost sounding annoyed as if he was bothering her.

 

“Thor’s brother. Please don’t kill me.” 

 

The woman blinked. 

 

“Come again? Thor’s...brother. Human brother. Human brother who is very much alive.”

 

“Yes,” a deeper voice flooded the space, instantly making Loki’s heart beat calm to only a slightly elevated level. 

 

“My human brother who is about to piss himself. Val, be nice. And Loki, put down the spoon.” He gently took Loki’s wrist, pulling the lame weapon away from him and placing it on the counter. 

 

“Wait. Back up. Can you just take a moment to hear yourself.  You have a human. In your home. One who you are not planning on killing in the next 24 hours, I’m guessing.” 

“Yes. Basically. Except he’s  _ my  _ human, so no one is going to touch him.” Thor folded his arms, pulling Loki closer to him, trying to not think terribly hard on when Loki became  _ his  _ and what that meant.

Valkyrie threw her hands up. 

“I can’t with you. You’re such an idiot. I feel like I am talking to a child. Is this the reason that you skipped out on the job tonight? To babysit your brother who, I’m assuming, thought you were dead? I came over to warn you about the shit storm you brought on yourself by the Grandmaster tonight, but this...damn, this is something special. You literally just offered up your own punishment. You know that, right? Because he’s going to find out, if he doesn’t know already. He was already asking 20 fucking questions about why you weren’t there. How the fuck did you even end up in the same city as him?”

“He’ll deal. It’ll blow over.”

Thor ignored the last question. It was frowned upon to keep too close of an eye on remaining mortal relatives, everyone knew that. But he could feel Loki’s eyes staring holes into Thor’s skull as the realization probably hit him. 

The ‘how’ was a conversation Loki deserved to hear before Val. 

Valkyrie folded her arms, giving Thor a stare only reserved for the stupidest of notions.

Alright, it probably wouldn’t blow over. He’d likely have to go to the Grandmaster’s...home, if you could even call it that, and beg for forgiveness in the least deprecated way possible.  If only for Loki’s sake. He didn’t need to find his brother completely drained dried and eyes frozen over as punishment for taking a day off.

“I’ll fix it. Tomorrow. I promise. I...appreciate the warning.”

“You’re welcome. Now, aren’t you going to introduce us?” Valkyrie smiled, though it looked more like a cat ready to bite you than a friendly grin.

“Loki,” he stated, as though he brother was standing right there with them. Thor knew the asshole could hear.

“This is Valkyrie.”

For a moment, there was no noise, no respond or movement on anyone’s part. Then, the floor squeaked again and Loki appeared, hair messed up from sleep, eyes slightly closed. He still looked like shit.

“Hello. Forgive my appearance. I...wasn’t expecting company.”

Valkyrie took Loki in, eyes casting over his silently. Judging. Attempting to put together pieces of a puzzle that the Odinsons barley brought up.

“You two have different dads or something?”

Loki and Thor stared at each other for a moment, as though they could communicate through eye contact alone. Valkyrie wasn’t even sure if they realized what they were doing. Loki was the one to answer with a cool shrug of the shoulders:

“Sure. Close enough.”

It wasn’t exactly a secret that Loki was adopted. It certainly explained the large age gap between the two, Frigga and Odin had tried for another child for years before giving up (though Frigga refused to call it that, as she had pointed out nearly a billion times that it sounded as though Loki was a consolation prize instead of a much wanted child) and adopting. Really, it wasn’t a topic all that breached. It was there, it was known within the family, but no one outside of them really cared to ask. Loki had always blamed it on the eyes. Somehow, him and Thor shared the same blue colour almost exactly, as did Odin. It was enough similarity for most people.

Loki cleared his throat.

“And you are a vampire as well, I’m guessing?”

“You would be guessing right, scene queen, ” Valkyrie said with a tip of her head.

“Fantastic. I’m going... back to bed, please don’t kill me in my sleep.” Loki threw one last look at Thor before disappearing again. ‘Sleep’. Right. More like Loki was going to barocade himself in the bedroom. 

“He looks like he should be the lead singer of an emo band, you know that right? Don’t most people grow out of the phase by like 18?”

Thor groaned, covering his face. He did not feel like dealing with this right now.

“Will you please shut up if I get you a drink?”  

She smirked.

“Yeah. But just as long as it takes me to drink it.”

 


	5. Chapter 5

With Loki safe at work, Thor made his way to what he was told was the Grandmaster’s current residence. Or at least, where he had lately been conducting his ‘business’. It was a decent drive, something Thor was quietly thankful for, as it gave him time to clear his mind. He was happy. He was . He had been trying to figure out how to get in contact with Loki for years, had been quietly keeping an eye on him and making sure his death didn’t cause any major life fuck ups for his little brother. But truthfully, Thor hadn’t thought much farther than just telling him the truth. Part of him thought Loki would run away and never speak to him again, which was his right. Another part, a bigger one if he was being honest, knew that Loki never really strayed from a challenge and tended to lean towards things that went against the status quo. But what happens now? Thor could turn him. Keep Loki immortal and safe, not have to worry about him dying and leaving, as selfish as that was. Hell, Loki would fit into the lifestyle better than Thor ever had.  It was definitely more Loki’s aesthetic than it was Thor’s, but he had become more accustomed to it over the years.

He’d ask him. Thor wouldn’t just do it. No matter how badly he wanted to. If Loki said no, that he’d rather be human, then Thor would just have to deal with it.

A weak gameplan: He’d wait a few weeks before asking, get Loki used to the idea of Thor being more than just a memory, maybe introduce him to a few friends that Thor deemed safe. Rogers wouldn’t be a threat and would likely get along with Loki, or at least attempt to. It wasn’t a master scheme by any means, but it was the start of one. Possibly.

His train of thought was caught off guard once his GPS announced that he was at his destination (in an all too chipper voice). It took him a couple of minutes to find parking, but, way too soon, he was staring up at a gleaming glass building. Thor could imagine that when the sun was at its highest peak that the whole thing must become one big blinding prism.

He pulled his sunglasses onto his forehead as he entered. Everything seemed very modern, very sleek, shots of colour here and there---this was the Grandmaster after all, ‘classy’ was not his modus operandi.

Thor approached the front desk, stated his business, and with barely any fuss found himself in an elevator that was blasting Britney Spears on loop. The doors eventually opened up to one completely open floor, a desk in the middle made entirely of glass, the inside lit up with colored lights. Leaning against it, seemingly reading something off his phone, was the Grandmaster himself. Once the doors closed themselves again with a ding (the sounds of _Oops I did it again_ getting more and more muffled in the distance), the Elder decided to grace Thor with his attention.

“Thor! My main man! What a surprise, what a surprise. C’mon in. Take a seat. You wanna drink? I just got some virgin blood delivered. Honestly, you can’t taste the difference, but I guess it’s all about the concept, huh?”

The Grandmaster ungracefully pushed away from his desk towards his own little bar, pouring himself a glass. The fresh smell of iron hitting Thor’s nose instantly and filling the whole oversized space.

“Where were you last night, bud? We missed you.”

Thor looked awkwardly between a hot pink fuzzy floor cushion and a electric blue blow up chair, trying to decide which he’d be less likely to break. He eventually chose the latter in abrupt silence, choosing not to speak until a cold glass was pushed into his hand.

“I’m sorry for not attending. I had some personal things going on that I had to handle at the last minute.”

“Sure, sure. Life happens. I get it. I’m not a difficult man, Thor. You know that. But business is important. It’s what keeps us on the top of the food chain. I need you to respect that and pull your weight,” the Grandmaster sighed.

“I can’t have dead weight on my crew, Thor. I’m worried that’s what you’re becoming.”

Thor sat up, the rubber squeaking beneath him. “No. No. I’m not! Really. Like I said: personal things came up. _So fast_. And there are somethings you just can’t say no too.”

The Grandmaster nodded, perching himself like a bird on the side of his desk again. Of course he had to position himself higher than Thor. As if this picture wasn’t demeaning enough already.

“Yeah, I get it. I do, bud. I do. Like friends, or civic duties, or family. ”

Thor froze.

“Brothers bring a lot of trouble with them. Oh, boy. Me and my brother--the things we’ve done. Then again, _my_ brother is undead. Tends to make things less complicated. Yours though---he’s a pretty one, isn’t he? Pretty _and_ alive.”

_Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck._

“Grandmaster, I---”

He threw a palm up.

“Shh, shh, shh, Thor. I know. I know how terribly sorry you are for lying to me. For ignoring your new family for your old. I can see it in your eyes, like a sad little puppy dog.  Hey, hey, I’ll tell you what. You can make it up to me, hmm? Really simple. I’m having a party tomorrow night. A ball of sorts. Very David Bowie, very Labyrinth-esq. With masks and all that jazz, it’ll be great. And I want you and your adorable brother to attend. The whole thing won’t even end in a murder or a sacrifice. I mean, I don’t wanna scare the little human off. What a rude host I would be. How does that sound?”

“I’m not---”

“It’s a hypothetical question, Thor. Rhetorical. You’re coming. It’s gonna be a blast. Trust me, alright? Now, I have planning to do. I’ll have my people call your people.”

Thor stood, placing the glass down without even taking a sip. What else could he do? What could he say that wouldn’t make this worse?

Why did he ever think he could keep Loki and get away with it?

A thousand thoughts went  through Thor’s head as he made his way back into the elevator. ( _‘My loneliness is killing me andddd I must confess I still believe--still believe_ ’ ) His sunglasses were covering his eyes before he reached the ground floor, hiding what threatened to become tears if he didn’t pull himself together.

All in all, he wasn’t sure if that went better or worse than he had hoped for.

                  ---

_“You’re going. You’ve been requested. You have no choice. Trust me, I wish you did.”_

 

Loki’s facial expression was one that Thor couldn’t bother to be offended by. He had grown up with it, that look of disdain that really was a cover for something else. Sometimes fear, sometimes excitement, other times indeterminate. Right now, Thor suspected it was probably a mixture of all three.  

Somehow the Grandmaster had found out about them and Thor highly doubted that it was just passing information or random facts. Who could even guess what the bastard knew, what secrets he held tight to his chest. No, there was no avoiding tonight. The best they could do would be to face it head on.

"Do you have a nice suit or something?" Thor asked.

The eye roll Loki produced was almost enough entertaining enough to allow some of the tension to bleed out of Thor’s shoulders. Almost.

"Of course, I do. I have quite a few. Why? Is this 'Grandmaster' having more than a casual get together?"

“He doesn’t exactly do ‘casual’. I have my car with me, we can stop by your place if you want.”

"I walked from work. But...I suppose a ride would be nice."

Thor nodded and began making the trek back to the gate of the park. Loki followed behind. He had no idea what this night would hold, but he hoped it would at least be entertaining.

\---

 

 

When they pulled up to Loki's apartment building, Thor made a b-line to his trunk, pulling out a suit bag which Loki side-eyed as they made their way up 6 flights of stairs.

"You brought your outfit with you? Is it still the suit Mom made you get for prom, or have you actually invested in nice clothing since then?"

Thor huffed.

"I have other suits. Nice suits. But that one still might be my favorite. Shut up."

Loki snickered as he opened the front door and walked straight into his bedroom. Thor took a moment to look around again. It was a standard city apartment: tiny for the cost, but somehow lacking any rats or weird smells that came with most units. Thor personally hated living in an apartment building. There was hardly any privacy, but then again, Loki didn't have the flexibility Thor had involving location. Yet.

After getting dressed himself, Thor found Loki still in his bedroom, fussing with his hair. Thor sat down on the bed, watching his brother through the long plastic mirror that hanged cricket on the yellowing wall. Loki reflected radiance back, his completely black three piece suit only broken up by a green scarf.  He looked wonderful---perfect even.

"You look really nice," Thor said, dragging his eyes away from his brother’s reflection.

"Thank you,” Loki states with a smirk as he turned towards Thor, giving him an obvious inspection as if _he_ was afraid Thor would embarrassed _him_.

“I am very impressed, Thor. You actually gain some style.”

He closed the few steps between them, pressing down on the lapel of Thor’s suit jacket. Blue, but surprisingly not tacky with its lack of tie and matching pants.

“Oh my, is this _actually tailored_?”

Thor covered Loki’s hand with his own without even thinking about it.

“I will tell you the whole story of my style evolution if you promise to get in the car. We’re going to be late.”

“Fine,” Loki said with a sigh, spinning around towards the door.

“But you better have some snacks in there.”

 ---

 

Lo and behold, Thor actually _had_ packed snacks. When pressed on the why, Thor just shrugged and stated that humans needed food at specific intervals and as Loki was a human…

The sun had set about an hour and a half prior and by the time they were far away from the city, the stars were completely out. Loki spent the majority of the ride looking up at the sky.

“No one is going to try to eat me, right?” he asked Thor, eyes still turned upwards as he ate another piece of candy.

“As if I would let anyone eat you, Loki,” tone flat and void.

Loki tried not to shiver at the lack of sarcasm in his brother’s words and uncharacteristically kept quiet for the majority of the rest of the trip.

Eventually, the car rolled up to what appeared on the outside an abandoned mansion. The windows were boarded up crudely, the grass uncut or dead. The pale light of the moon did nothing to help the not so appealing scene as it casted shadows here and there.

Thor showed no surprise as he opened the car door for Loki, perhaps he even looked a bit disdained. On the other hand, Loki seemed almost blown away by the eeriness of the whole area. Thor couldn't really blame him, even if his own excitement was completely tarnished.

The large wooden doors opened by themselves once they reached the steps, a woman stepping out to greet them silently. She stared both of them down before rummaging through a large black box and pulling out two masks, handing both to Thor.

“Please put these on before entering the main ballroom. The Grandmaster has deemed it mandatory for the theme of tonight’s get together.”

Thor grunted in response, walking forward and handing one to Loki.

“Is that what it’s going to be like the whole evening? People basically pretending I’m not there?”

Thor tied the red ribbon at the back of his head before responding.

“Yes, Loki. The whole night will be extremely campy, as you can clearly see, and everyone will treat you like you’re a pet. The vast majority of vampires in attendance here think of humans as equivalent to stuffed animals at best and cattle at worst.”

“And how long do we have to stay for?” Loki asked, grimacing as he slipped his own mask on.

“As little as possible. We show our faces, we leave. And, for the sake of your safety, if anyone asks, you’re mine. As much as I know you hate the sound of it.”

Loki took Thor’s offered arm as they walked farther into the house.

“Very well,” he responded as a pair of guards opened another set of doors.

“But don’t get used to it.”

The main room was dark, lit only by candle light, and Loki couldn't draw his eyes away.  It was as though he stepped back in time. Everyone in the crowd of people were dressed beautifully, impeccably even. Dancers littered the floor in time with the music, servants bustled around as if they ran on a hive mind. It was hard to keep your eyes on a single spot.

Within a few minutes, Thor was pulled away.

( _“Stay around here,”_ he had said. _“I’ll be back in a few minutes, I swear.”)_

But Loki didn’t find that he minded all too much. He had a glass of champagne (the type that was not laced with blood. He had asked.) cradled in his hand and was more than satisfied with quietly watching from the sidelines.Thor was worried and Loki appreciated it, but at the same time, he doubted there was much Thor could do to protect him from all these vampires if they decided to attack. Besides, if he was going to die this night, he'd rather enjoy it before meeting his doom. And yet, for all the fear Loki had before they had arrived, no one had even really looked at him, never mind attempted to eat him. Which, in the grand scheme of things, was likely a positive.

He was more than happy to continue in this theme of quiet on-looking until he saw a man appear at the top of the staircase. Loki couldn't exactly see his face, as it was obviously hidden behind an ornate mask.  Albeit, a very lovely mask, with its black and gold devil horns, shaping up to be almost a crown on his brow bone. Obviously, this person (who felt important enough to have a grand entrance) was trying to allude to being satan. King of the damned, so to speak. _How original_. It took only a moment more for Loki to realize that this must be Thor's special 'colleague.’

It took maybe five seconds after that for said frenemy to make his way directly down the stairs and very close to Loki.

And then he bowed.

_To Loki._

“You must be Thor’s little human brother.”

“And you must be the one who threatens him all the time,” Loki said, the glass of champagne already having loosened his tongue somehow.   

“Ah, _threatened_. I don’t like that term all that much. It makes it sound like whatever I’m planning is bad. When really, all I was planning on doing is asking you to dance.”

The Grandmaster took Loki’s hand and kissed the knuckles. Loki, for his part, was too startled to pull away, in fact he wasn’t sure if he ought to at all. Did he even want to?

“I’ve never really danced in this fashion before,” Loki admitted, trying for a subtle excuse to pull away, to find Thor, to _leave_. The Grandmaster smirked, as if he was entertained by this notion. The human was embarrassed. How cute.

“It’s the type of dance you feel. Don’t worry, I’ll lead.”

Before he could fully comprehend it, Loki found himself dancing on a marble floor with an ancient vampire’s hands wrapped around his waist. It was like floating more than dancing and his fear of stepping on toes quickly diminished, instantly replaced with the feeling of being out of body. It took until the halfway point of the second song for Loki to find his voice again:

“Are you doing this just to piss off my brother?”

The Grandmaster smiled, as though Loki was there merely for his amusement.  

“Ha. No. Your brother is the farthest thing from my mind.”

“You’ll forgive me if I find that hard to believe. Considering what I’ve been told by proxy.”

“Haven't you ever played that game little mortals love? Telephone? I could actually be a saint and you just heard wrong.”

“Says the man wearing devil horns.”

The Grandmaster didn't even pause his swift movements as he grinned.

“Satan can be s-w-e-e-t sweet. You just gotta give him a chance. How bout it?”

Loki hesitated.

“I’m not exactly sure what you're asking.”

“To see you again. To take you out around the town. Do you like ballets?”

“Do you?”

“ Sure.I always like pretty things. Like you.”

Loki snorted. No matter the setting, nor the fact that he was slow dancing to Strauss, he just couldn’t take a cheesy ass pickup line from someone who look as though they could be his father.

“Do you say this to everyone you want to suck dry? Aren’t you the King? Couldn’t you just hypnotize me into doing your bidding or something?”

The Grandmaster clucked his tongue: “Now where is any of the fun in that?”

Just like that, Loki suddenly found himself being dipped. Sparklingly brown eyes (almost black, now that he’s up close) crinkle back at him.

“I really want to kiss you right now,” the Grandmaster said.

Loki paused, all his weight being held up by the Grandmaster as the music and the party continued around them.

“Now, where’s the fun in that?” Loki asked, as the Grandmaster’s face moved closer to his own, lips gently touching. Then, for a reason that he couldn’t comprehend (heat of the moment? Too much alcohol? The adernalien that comes with the onslaught of death?) Loki did not pull back. He kissed him. It was brief, only the softest of pecks, over before it even began. The smile that crossed the Grandmaster’s face was akin to something Loki would think a lottery winner would be wearing upon finding out they won five billion dollars.

One more dance, one more moment of feeling like he was flying, and the Grandmaster gently tucked Loki into a corner as someone, a large man, came to whisper in his ear. The Grandmaster sighed before turning his attention back.

“It’s been a ridiculous pleasure, Loki. I doubt it will be the last.” He kissed Loki’s hand once again.

“Thank you, Grandmaster.”

“--En. You can...call me En. Grandmaster is a title. Not totally sure when it became my actual name but...you can call me En.”

Loki nodded. “Thank you, En.” It felt strange in his mouth. Unfinished.

Before he could even move his mouth fast enough to make another comment, or use his name again, the Grandmaster was gone.

 ---

Loki found Thor just a few minutes later in an adjacent dining hall. Oddly enough, it was empty apart from his brother, some other tall buff blond guy (Loki absentmindedly wondered who would win in a fight) who looked as if his grandmother had dressed him, and another man who seemed to have more...swagger about him.

Perhaps describing him as a ‘rebel’ was a bit too extremely but he certainly had an appealing unkempt look about him: His hair was a bit ruffled, his leather jacket sitting over his dress shirt, and a peak of something reflective, like a slight glint of metal from under his sleeve.

Thor halted their conversation too quickly for Loki to totally take the scene in as a casual observer as his eyes found Loki’s. There was a sharpness of relief there, especially as he called Loki’s name.

“Brother, there you are! I couldn’t find you for the life of me.” Thor quickly crossed the room and draped an arm around Loki, bringing him into the quiet little fold.

“These are friends of mine: James Barnes and Steve Rogers.”

He shook both their hands, noticing how strong Barnes was with no comment. Loki smiled, attempting to ease himself into the situation.

“Bucky. Please don’t call me James. Steve doesn’t even do that when he’s pissed.”

“Fair enough---- How did you two get out of wearing masks?”

Almost on cue, as though they were in a shitty prime time comedy show, both men lifted up the masks that they were seemingly carrying on them.

“No one breaks the Grandmaster’s party policies. He likes to pretend it’s still the 1700’s.”

“Fuck,” Bucky groaned, shoving his own mask back down on the table after looking at it with more disdain than Loki thought possible for a piece of plastic.

“You should have seen him in the 80’s. It was real rip, lemme tell you.”

“I don’t think it’s _that_ terrible. I’ve been to worse,” Loki stated with a shrug. It was only a half lie.

“You’re new,” Steve said. “You'll get sick of it eventually. That or you become an Elder’s pet and are so high all the time that even getting sucked dry and thrown in ditch looks shiny and appealing.”

Loki tried to laugh but it came out brittle and fake at best. He could almost feel Thor’s eyes beaming through his skull. There was a lot to unpack mentally about this whole evening, Loki figured.

Thor was certainly one of those things.

 


	6. Chapter 6

Loki hardly even jumped when his phone rang.

 

Hesitantly, his fingers reached for it, eyes clamping shut in fear of what name (or strange number) would pop up on the screen. When he saw it said 'Mom' with a heart next to it, a swell of relief hit his chest. Which, of course, was followed by a massive amount of guilt as soon as he heard her voice.

 

Thor.

 

Oh god. She thought Thor was dead.

 

"...Loki? Are you going to say hello or just breathe into the phone heavily?"

 

"Hi, Mom. Sorry, I---long day. I was half asleep. How are you?"

 

He could almost hear the smile in Frigga's voice, not to mention the tinge of worry too.

 

She always worried.

 

"I'm good. Missing my son, so I figured a phone call was needed as someone hasn't even so much as texted me in over a week."

 

"Sorry! Really, I'm sorry. Work. It's---a lot right now. Life is a lot right now. I'm sort of feeling home sick, to be honest. For you and Dad,"

 

_And Thor. Us as a whole unit, really. But I’m not going to even go down that road right now._

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. You'll have a break soon enough and can come back and let me fuss all over you, right? We can always video chat too. You know that."

 

Loki nodded as though Frigga could see him.

 

"I know. I've been sick too." Really, that was the first excuse he should have went with. He cut her off before the babying could even begin:

 

"---I'm fine now. Got better pretty quickly, actually. I think if you see me in real time at the moment,  you'll give me a lecture, so maybe we should hold off another day or two."

 

“Not seeing you doesn't make me not worry, you know.”

 

Loki sighed. Then he smiled. A fake smile, but maybe if he posed his muscles in the right way, it would make his voice sound happier. He had read somewhere that if you forced yourself to look happy, it will eventually trick your brain into believing it. Such a concept was far fetched, in Loki's opinion but there was no harm in trying it for Frigga's sake. That and lying. He was so very good at lying.

 

“Don't worry, Mom. I'm doing great. Just last night I went to a party with some friends. I danced the night away. It was fun.”

Even if Loki's statement was more akin to an untruth than a lie, he realized too late that it sounded extremely fake for anyone who knew him. Loki, socializing? Willingly? And having fun while doing so?

 

Frigga must have thought so too. There was a pause.

 

“You? At a party? Oh, well now I know something is wrong. Do you need me to come down there for a visit? I'm sure your father can handle him---"

 

“Mom, really. It wasn't that type of party. It was a lot of scholarly types. I got to waltz and apparently wasn't terrible at it.”

 

“That would be the type of dance you could pull off. I’ve always said you were born in the wrong century.”

 

Loki laughed, but it didn’t match the expression on his face: one of blank contempt at words he used to find a compliment in. It seemed he couldn't even fake being happy after all. But really, he  _was_  happy. He had Thor back, how could he possibly not be?

Joy and sadness are not mutually exclusive. Thor was the sun and without that, the world quickly grew stark and cold.

\----

 

He heard nothing from Thor for a full three days. Not a text, not a call, not a creepy, oddly well placed note. Not a single word. Nor did he hear anything from the Grandmaster, which left Loki feeling  painfully relieved.

 

And so he worked, read, and tried extremely hard to pick up his old life. If not just for a little while.

 

It was peaceful, for the first day, but it quickly became rather dull. He kept finding his mind in a loop of thoughts: wondering where Thor was, wondering what the Grandmaster was doing, worrying in detailed images that this whole situation had finally caught up to Thor and his torso was in a ditch somewhere, his head gone clean from his neck and a stake through his heart. Loki found himself playing the whole thing out like a movie, scene by scene, even creating the dialogue for the painful scene. It would make a good novel, he thought bitterly to himself. That is, as long as it didn’t come true in real life.

 

The second night, he called Thor’s house. The phone rang, each passing sound making Loki grow a little colder. Thor, for the most part, was always a homebody. Sure, he liked going out more than Loki did, but neither Odinson enjoyed anything better than being in the comfort of their own home, in sweatpants, and (in Thor’s case) playing video games, or (in Loki’s case) reading.

 

When there was eventually no answer, and Loki was prompted to ‘leave a message after the beep’ by a cold robotic voice, he let his mouth run, unsure of what he even stated once he hanged up the phone. 

 

As if it were a bomb, Loki threw the phone onto the couch, expecting next call would cause it to explode and destroy everything in a two mile radius. He ended up distracting himself by watching a documentary on the scary shit that lives at the bottom of the ocean, the light of his laptop reflecting onto his face from his coffee table where it sat untouched.

 

An unsound sleep finally found him two hours and three minutes into the film.

 

\----

Thor felt sore. Not the good kind of sore you feel the morning after a hard workout, but the type you feel when you over exerted yourself because you had no choice, and it didn’t occur to you until it was too late. Jobs normally weren’t difficult for him anymore. Then again, Valkyrie was dead asleep on his couch at the moment, so maybe this wasn’t just about his own strengths, maybe this was more about what they had been up to. At least the money was well worth it.

He pulled himself out of bed with a groan, not bothering to put a shirt on, before slowly dragging himself into the kitchen. The red light on his answering machine was too bright for him not to notice in his overly dark kitchen. His first instinct was to ignore it, but then again, not many people knew his landline. He pressed play with a hand covering his eyes.

 

“ _Hey Thor, It’s me. I just wanted to make sure you’re not dead. For real this time. Totally dead, I mean. Call me? Bye._ ”

 

Thor paused, pulling his hand away to look at the machine. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Loki. He hadn’t even thought of texting Loki this whole time, he was too enthralled in his own damn drama. He was suddenly hit with various memories of his little brother moping when being ignored. The time Loki started crying because Thor hadn’t talked to him until dinner time and Loki thought he was mad at him. The other time when Thor was babysitting him and after putting Loki to bed, Thor went outside to smoke but Loki couldn’t find him and was convinced Thor had left him, which resulted in Loki hiding under the bed and Thor panicking because  _holy fuck_  where did his 6 year old brother go, mom was gonna  _KILL HIM_.

 

He had grown out of that, right? Twenty or so years later?

 

Thor looked at the clock before grabbing his cellphone. It was too late (or too early, depending on how you thought about it) to call Loki up. A text would do just fine.

 

[Thor: 3:21 am _] Hey, I just got your message. I was on an impromptu work assignment. I’m sorry for not telling you. That was really shitty of me. Please don't be too mad._

 

Thor really did not expect a text back whatsoever, so much so that he was just as surprised as Valkyrie when his ringtone went off (“Holy fuck, Thor. Turn that shit off! Have you never heard of vibrate?”). Vampiric hearing had its drawbacks.

 

[Loki: 3:24 am]  _It’s fine. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t going insane and this whole thing wasn’t actually just a delusion of mine. I talked to Mom the other day, which didn’t help._

 

Alright, well now Thor felt like a complete asshole.  

 

His fingers hesitated over the keys for a moment, unable to put into words what exactly had been building up in his heart for years. There was so much to reply with,even with to such a tiny text. So much time lost, so many things each of them did not know about the other. Some of those things were new discovers likely better off left in the cold grave that was the past. Instead he settled, regretting it but knowing that that was the way it had to be, for now.

 

[Thor: 3:27 am]  _How is she?_

 

He hit enter and bit his lip until blood welled into his mouth, making his way back into his bed. Even asking that much was opening the gates to messy conversations, ones Thor would have no control over.

 

[Loki: 3:27 am]  _Good. Her book club is reading Pride and Prejudice. We mostly talked about that._

 

[Thor: 3:28 am]  _I’ve never read it._

 

[Loki: 3:28 am]  _Oh. Oh no. That’s not acceptable. I’m not even going to ask what the last book you read was._

 

Thor smiled. Innocent. This conversation was completely innocent, even though each brother was aware that they were glazing over the tricky parts, the parts that hurt, the parts that they both needed to talk about. Thor fell asleep, trying to think of a response. There was always tomorrow. And the tomorrow after that one. Hopefully, if Thor had his way, their would be an endless supply of them.

 

\----

Thor’s door rang at 6 pm the next night, a casual looking Loki holding out a pink and green book in greeting. Thor took it without question.

 

“You need to be cultured,” was Loki’s only response as he let himself in, Thor’s eyes darting over the cover. Pride and Prejudice. He had so set himself up for this one, hadn’t he?

 

“Thank you?” he finally responded, closing the front door and pushing the lock in.

 

“How was work? Did you see the Grandmaster?” Loki asked, looking innocently at his nails. The paint was chipping as if someone had been chewing on them.

 

Thor gently placed the book on the side table. He’d read it later. Really, he would.

 

“I spoke to him on a call for maybe five minutes. I was working to get information from another guy.”

 

“Oh. Who?” Loki's heart rate slowed in response. A relief for Thor and Loki alike. 

 

“His name is Laufey," Thor sighed, sitting down and grabbing his drink in a single motion.  "He’s a really old school European. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s where the idea of Dracula came from. Or if he lived in a castle somewhere. Tracking him for two days was interesting to say the least."

 

“What did the Grandmaster want with him?” Loki asked, trying to make it sound like he was actually interested in this story and not snooping for information. 

 

“Laufey is sort of a big deal, apparently. I’m too young to know the whole story, but I think he’s almost an equal to the Grandmaster. Vampires get really pissy when other people get on their trefs. Especially when there’s money involved.”

 

“Ah, I see.” He didn’t.

 

“Do you? Because I wish I did.”

 

Loki snorted, letting himself sink into Thor’s squishy couch as well. A silence fell, both brothers deep in thought.

 

Loki finally broke it with an abrupt question.

 

“Would you ever consider turning me?”

 

Thor bolted up. 

 

“I---how--- yes . I mean, if you wanted to. But...can I ask why?” he sputtered out, all cool and collectives being through out of the window.  

 

Loki smirked. “It seems interesting. In a way that growing old and dying doesn’t.”

 

Thor nodded. “I’ve been wanting to ask you, but I was afraid of your answer. It won’t be for a while. I want you to really think on it, because there’s no going back, and it’s a whole different world you’re going to get sucked into. Not that I’m trying to talk you out of it. I’m not. I just want this to be your decision and your decision alone. No pressure from me.”

 

Loki sighed. He had expected that answer, was even hoping for it. Dying tonight wouldn’t exactly been convenient and there were still things he wanted to discover before he took that plunge. But, then again, it never hurt to place an idea in Thor’s mind, get him used to it in order to avoid the whole ‘heroic’ backlash of guilt Thor usually felt about things like that.

 

“Honestly, Thor, I don’t think I fit into this world all that great anyway. I’d welcome a chance in another one.”

 

\---

When Loki walked into the hallway, there was blood on the floor; coating. The layer on top slick, the underneath that he picked up on the bottom of his bare feet crusted with age, almost black in color. 

Loki had never, at that point in his life, seen a person bleed out before. He had been told from various doctor shows and horror movies that there was much more blood in a person that one would think. Still, this amount…it had to be from multiple people. A massacre. And yet he kept walking as if he had no control over where he feet took him.

It can be relief when one realizes they are simply in a dream. It is a whole different feeling when one discovers they are stuck in a nightmare. 

He kept walking, following the loud clinking of a clock and the even louder ‘dong’ of an hour passing. Hours were passing  _so fast._ First every sixty ticks, then every twenty. Now every two and yet Loki could not find his way through these strange halls, slipping through the blood as he began running. His fingers clutched at marble walls once he finally heard music. 

His mind could not compute what he saw, could not describe the room–no,  _rooms_  that fell before him. 

_‘The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sharp turn at the right and left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window looked out upon a closed corridor of which pursued the windings of the suite. These windows were of stained glass whose color varied in accordance with the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened.’_

Loki walked through, unused to the feeling of clean floors under his bloody feet. No one payed him any mind. The dancers, like paired off marionettes, moved in time and did not miss a beat. 

The clock struck again as he entered another room. Red. Red glass windows that had to be hundreds of years old, unbroken by age and yet lit from outside by no obvious source of light. The dancers in this room were completely frozen into two straight lines even as the music played on behind them. 

Loki walked between them. He did not notice the main focal point in the room because before he could, his eyes caught on the person standing at the end, staring blankly at the wall.

“…Brother?” 

Loki stopped, grasping Thor by the shoulders and shaking him vigorously when no answer was received.  

“Thor? Thor, wake up. Where are we?” 

No answer. So Loki slapped him. 

“Wake up!” 

“He’s not sleeping, Loki. In fact, he’s not even alive.” 

With a deep pain in his lungs, Loki turned towards the voice, to the Grandmaster in all his glory. The person who was  _actually_  meant to be the shining glory of the miserable space. Though Loki saw nothing glorious in it. In fact, this all seemed quite sad. 

When he did not get the response he wanted from Loki, in fact Loki gave no response at all, the Grandmaster snapped his fingers and the whole scene shifted. 

Like toys knocked over by a toddler, each body in the both lines fell to the ground in heavy thumps. And somehow, blood started leaking from all of them as if their main artery was sliced through with a knife.  

Loki stood transfixed, unable to breath as his eyes fell to Thor again. As Loki fell to his knees besides him, cradling his brother’s head in his lap. It was cold. Thor was always cold but this…this…

“ _And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death.”_ Loki whispered, his voice getting louder as if it wade out the other noises that clogged the rooms. Music. Still so much music. But mostly cellos and hardly enough weeping violin.

“ _And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall._ ” 

The Grandmaster made no comment on Loki's lines of poetry. Instead moving closer and putting his hand out. 

“Will you not dance with me again, Loki?” 

But Loki would not get up, would not look him in the eye. He stayed firmly in place. 

This was a nightmare, but all nightmares ended. He would wake up. He could feel it in his bones. 

“ _And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all._ ”

And like an all encompassing smash, Loki awoke in his bed. 

\---

It was 12 am.

With a slow breath, Loki pulled himself out of bed and wandered into the hallway. There was a light shining from under the door of Thor's office, his fingers hesitating on the doorknob before slowly pushing it open.

“Thor?”

His brother was busy, typing away at something on his computer, but instantly lifted his gaze at the sound of his little brother’s voice.

“Loki? You alright?”

Loki sleeping over had become almost a night occurrence. Sometimes Loki fell asleep in the guestroom, but more times they either would like to admit, he ended up in Thor's bed. Loki wasn't exactly a fantastic sleeper but there was comfort in seeing that he was safe. Right now he looked like he felt anything but. 

“Can vampires talk through dreams?”

And with that question, Thor wasn't exactly sure Loki  _was._

He looked over his little brother slowly before even thinking about answering that question.  Pale. Loki was paler than usual, green eyes dulled, heart rate elevated. 

“It depends. I guess so, yeah. Why, did you have a nightmare?”

Loki nodded slowly. Thor thought he looked like a lost child again. Someone screaming for comfort in the dead of night. The truth might make this worse, but a lie would might put Loki in danger. If someone was up to something, Thor needed to know. 

“And it involved a vampire?”

Another faint nod.

“Usually they only talk in dreams for a purpose. To tell the dreamer something. I’m sure it used to be very helpful, but cell phones exist now. There’s not much of a reason why someone would do that.”

“Poetic reasons, maybe?” Loki stated, still hovering in the doorway, like he wanted to run away.

“What did you see, Loki?” Thor asked, turning on the other light in the corner to scare off the ghosts hanging in his brother's gaze.

"You, dead. That was the most important part of it. You were so cold and your eyes were just staring at nothing. It was the worst thing I have ever seen in my life. The Grandmaster was there and wanted me to dance but I refused. I couldn't let go of you."

“Loki, I’m sure it was just a dream.” Thor stood, shifted over to his brother and engulfing him in a hug, not letting go even as the seconds ticked on. Loki accepted it in silence, burrowing in closer so Thor could devour him whole. 

Thor really hoped it was just a dream. The other option, he wasn’t able to stomach.


	7. Chapter 7

The clock tower in the middle of the city stroked 3am, witching hour, as Loki began his fast climb up the winding staircase. His mind was blank and rushing all at the same time. In some moments, all he felt was a deep panic, a sense that he will never have enough time, that he will never reach the top, that it is too late. Other moments, he felt an almost sense of peace, the lack of tension that comes with accepting that there was nothing one could do, that fate had decided the outcome and no matter how fast he sprinted, it would not change. The ebb and flow of both those feelings came and went like the tide, Loki having little choice but having to deal with them, his lungs burning. In the end, he still ran as fast as his feet could take him.

When he finally reached the top, when his legs felt as though they would collapse underneath him and that his lungs had decided to stop functioning properly, Loki moved to the figure in the middle of the room. The person he had been running to---or perhaps running from. He couldn’t remember. He couldn’t remember anything past the need to climb to the top of the tower. The figure, clad in a black cloak, hummed, sang. Its words low and deep, a pitch out of tune.

_ “If there’s no one else to blame, _

_ The clock will strike once again, _

_ And leave us to our midnight thoughts, _

_ Only if you wish to think them.” _

_ Loki inched closer, the words making his mind feel soft, like his ears had been stuffed with cotton. Yet the singing continued. _

_ “Oh my darling, do you long for me near? _

_ Oh my darling, has the water run clear? _

_ For red stains everything it touches, _

_ Just as death stains life and fear.” _

Look extended one arm forward, his fingers shaking as he hesitated over the deep fabric of the hood.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked.

The being did not answer, even as Loki ripped back the hood, revealing the man who was inside.

All Loki saw was the sharp teeth before he woke up.

\----

“You’re not sleeping.”

“Wow, brother, what a lovely greeting.” Loki said with a hiss, wishing to completely disregard this conversation in favour of sitting down or have more coffee. “So observant of you, always stating the bluntly obvious like a child.”

Thor didn’t respond, he could tell from Loki’s sharp tongue alone: anything that came out of his own mouth would be misconstrued and be taken in the completely wrong way. It would be wise to leave Loki alone, Thor knew from experience. But Thor never did consider himself wise in any sense of the word. Instead, he decided to poke the bear with a stick some more. Lovingly, of course.

“Are you still having nightmares?”

Loki didn’t respond. Instead he barged into Thor’s house and collapsed on his couch with crossed arms tightly drawn to his chest.

“I’m going to go talk to the Grandmaster and then I’m going to kill him,” Thor stated as he tightened his fist.

“Could you just---  _ not _ , for maybe a moment? Thank you for wanting to defend me, but your second death won’t exactly do much.”

“He wouldn’t kill me, he’d---”

“Decimate you to the point where there is not even ash left to call your remains? Yes, you’re correct. My bad.”

Thor rolled his eyes, his hands still in the form of fists as though he couldn’t function until he punched someone in the face. Loki found it endearing in a way, but he didn’t need his older brother fighting his battles for him. No, Loki had a better plan.

“So then, what exactly are we going to do?” Thor asked. Loki would humour him for the time being.

“Sit down and binge watch some tv.”  

Loki would do the rest on his own.

\----

“Loki, would you be a dear and drop off some books for me to a patron? He’s busy and isn’t able to send his assistant down to collect them.”

It was a wet and somber day. Loki hardly wanted to go outside. Being the only person employed under the age of fifty, he was often volunteered for things involving getting heavy books from point A to point B.

“Of course. Where am I delivering them to exactly?”

Janet, the woman who was the head librarian, seemingly already had the address scribbled down for him. Loki took it and the (surprisingly light) box without comment.

 He was hardly surprised when he pulled up to a modern looking skyscraper, given the location. Unimpressed and hardly noticing the decor of the building, he placed the box down on the reception desk.

“I was asked to deliver these books to this address.”

His voice seemed to awaken the woman sitting at the front desk from the stupor her phone had placed her in. She looked Loki over carefully.

“Oh, perfect. We’ve been expecting you.”

“Great. Have a nice day,” and with a turn of the heel against the marble floor, Loki made his way out.

That is, until the receptionist called out to him.

“Wait! Would you be a doll and take them upstairs? He wants them personally delivered.”

Loki tried to hold back a groan. Rich people . Didn’t they have a plethora of underpaid employees to do this for them?

“Right. What office?” He made his way back to the desk and picked up the damp box, now stained from the ongoing storm.

“Just take the elevator all the way up.”

He could feel eyes practically boring into back as he went into the lift, eyes rolling up to the ceiling until the doors were firmly shut. The elevator was silent , as if setting a scene that Loki wasn’t sure he wanted to be a part in. The doors parted to show a room full of glass, a room where accident surely were just waiting to happen. It felt cold, too modern for Loki’s tastes. Then again, Loki wasn’t there for the ugly decor. But that was all he was able to establish before he heard a vaguely familiar voice.

“ Lo-keee ! you finally came.” The Grandmaster smiled, not getting up from his makeshift throne.

And just like that, Loki almost dropped said box of books.

“Grandmaster? I---This was a nice little set up.”

The vampire smiled, teeth almost gleaming.

“Wasn’t it? I personally thought so. The dreams weren’t seeming to do the trick, so I just took a more direct route. Less fun, but watcha gonna do?”

Loki stepped forward, placing the books down on the desk.

“Do you even need these or did I completely waste my time?” he asked.

“No, no! I do need them. I find it easier to gather information through physical books. Call me old fashion. Would you like some tea? Coffee? I have some fabulous blueberry bread.”

Loki gave no answer, more in shock than anything.

“ Can you just--- stop it. Explain what’s going on. Why you wanted to dance, why you keep threatening me, why you keep sending me nightmares for no obvious reason but your own entertainment.”

The Grandmaster smiled, as though Loki was telling him an interesting story, there for only a casual visit. He tapped his fingers against the glass of his desk.

“Right to the point. Nice. I like you. I like like you. I’ll be honest, my technique might be old, as I’m not good with flirting with mortals, but I am trying my best.”

“This is you flirting? The dancing were one thing, but keeping me up all hours of the night...that can kill me, you realize that, right?”

“Oh, I’d never let it get that bad. I’ve kept mortals before, I know how you function. I also know that you die quicker from not eating than not sleeping, so--- blueberry bread!”

The Grandmaster stood, humming to himself as he went to a very nice almost mini kitchen in the far corner of the space. It was almost painfully domestic. Loki couldn’t help but feel like Thor was right and this was going to end with him dying after being force fed store bought shitty bakery goods.

“Here. Eat, eat. I’ll talk while you that. You see, Loki. I’m not a young man anymore. I look it, I know. But being an elder, which,  _ gods _ , do I hate that word, means I have certain responsibilities. For instance, your dear brother. I don’t  _ hate _ him. I find him extremely annoying almost all the time, but he’s a good worker, gets things done in a nice manner. That’s why I hire him to do my bidding so much. He’s also technically one of mine. I mean, I didn’t turn him, but someone that I did turn turned him. Meaning, in correlation, he is mine. And, in general, I care for my own. Or at least don’t kill them as long as they stay useful,” The Grandmaster added flippantly. 

 “But, you see, the other part of being such a big wig vampire is that I need to constantly keep new blood pumping. There’s a certain quota that needs to be met to keep us the most powerful coven instead of our dickwads of enemies. So, when I find someone I think is sexy, smart, and fits the aesthetic so well, I automatically want to take things to the next level.”

The bread in Loki’s mouth suddenly turned into a big rock.

“Next level?”

“Yes. Which would be you, being turned.”

Loki’s eyes widened. Turned. Turned.

“Thor and I discussed this already.”

This seemed to throw the Grandmaster off balance, which was a nice sight to see.

“Did you now?”

“Yeah. I said I’d let him turn me in a few months, maybe a year or two.”

“Ah. Well. See, my offer was to turn you _ myself _ . My other offer was also to take you on a proper date. One doesn’t really cancel out the other, by the way. I was thinking about going to the museum with all the dinosaur bones.”

“You want to turn me.”

“Yes.”

“And the dreams will stop?”

“Right now.”

“And you want to take me out to look at dead lizards.”

“They’re more related to birds actually, but yes.”

Loki sat back in the chair that he honestly couldn’t recall sitting in in the first place.

“Alright. So, I will say yes to the dinosaur date. Yes, to being able to sleep. And a ‘I need time’ on the being turned thing.”

“Fair enough. I like your spunk. Most people hardly tell me ‘maybe’. It’s a nice change of pace. I’ll pick you up at 7?”

“Don’t the museums close at 6 during the week?”

“Yes. Your point?”

Loki stood.

“Okay. Yeah. Tonight. At 7.”

The Grandmaster kissed his cheek.

Loki didn’t realize he was still holding a piece of squashed blueberry bread in his hands until he got to his car.


	8. Chapter 8

Thor went and killed someone that night. It wasn’t his favorite thing to do, but he had been coming to terms with it. He could get blood bags easily enough, but he’d have to drink about ten daily for it to have the same effect as one fresh human. Not to mention, it never had that same— _ feeling _ . That feeling you get as you watch the life drain from someone’s eyes and straight into your mouth. The guilt would hit afterwards, when Thor was walking home or watching the blood run down the drain after he scrubbed it off in the shower. But, if he was being honest, that guilt faded as the years went on.

The only person he had any major grievances with hurting was Loki and Thor was hoping, if all things went to plan, that his little brother wouldn’t be a human for much longer anyway.

Still, he was relieved when he got a text from his little brother stating that he had plans for the night and would not be stopping over. Thor didn’t like that at all. They had quickly become inseparable over the passing days, Thor becoming comfortable, some could say even addicted to their routine. Was it dangerous? Yes. But that had never stopped Thor Odinson before and it certainly wouldn’t now. Not when---not when there was a chance of having Loki for all eternity, not when Loki was quickly claiming every ounce of Thor. 

But that wasn’t the point. Not right now. Loki was an adult, Loki had lived a whole life without Thor making his decisions for him. He’d be fine. It was more important to focus on his current goal and trust that his brother could take care of himself. 

Thor’s victim tonight was some rude guy at a coffee shop he randomly frequented. Thor had found that if you sat in the corner of anything remotely related to retail, you were bound to find a couple of assholes. Did they really deserve to straight out die? No, Thor doubted it. But he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. This wasn’t Twilight. He couldn’t live off deer.

Thor blew on his tea, watching the whole scene play out, made sure to finish it before walking out, and quickly caught up to the guy. The details, in Thor’s opinion, were boring. But as Thor dumped the still warm corpse back into the driver’s seat of the dickwad’s car, he reflected on some of his life choices. Like wearing one of his favorite shirts (a really soft long grey t-shirt that he had gotten years ago) when he knew he was going to be killing someone. Blood was a pain to get out of any material, especially if it was a light color.  Another regret was his murder location. Sure, the car had tinted windows which was handy, but Thor was a tall guy and his back was seriously hurting from the awkward angle that he had been stuck in for the last ten minutes.

Deciding he was done and really needed a bath, Thor took grabbed his hoodie that he conveniently carried in his bag, zipping it up to hide the blood stains (he would need to get a detergent stick on his way home) and stole the dead guy’s wallet, flicking it off the bridge and into the water. The area they were in had really shit CC TV and it was completely dark out, but it never hurt to make it seem like there was a motive. A mugging gone wrong. Humans liked the simple answers and usually didn’t dig if they were provided with one nicely on the surface.

He took one more look at the night sky before heading home.

\---

To say that Loki was disappointed in the Grandmaster’s house was an understatement. The date had been—-nice, he supposed. It was a rather harrowing yet fascinating experience going through a museum with someone who had lived to see all its contents. In truth, Loki couldn’t tell what was actual events the vampire had taken part in from what was absolute bullshit and, after spending any amount of time with the Grandmaster, anyone could gather that  _ some _ of it had to be absolute fucking bullshit.

Digressing and off point: The Grandmaster’s house was nowhere as fancy as his stories were. Don’t get Loki wrong, it was expensive looking and Victorian at the very least, but it wasn’t anything Loki thought Dracula would live in. Still, there was obvious hesitation in going inside. This could all be a great ploy to murder him and Loki would be walking directly into it, arms wide open and waiting. He was basically asking to get eaten. He would have no one to blame but himself if this all went terribly wrong. 

The click of the car door opening brought Loki back to the present. He tilted his head up as the Grandmaster took his hand.

“Shall we go, Lo? I have a lovely cabernet airing for us.” 

Loki nodded and went into the dark with only thoughts filled with Thor’s disappointed face.

Fast forward 20 or so minutes and Loki was sitting on a beautiful vintage fainting couch, a glass of wine in his hand filled almost to the brim that he had absolutely no intention of finishing. The Grandmaster— _ En _ —-sat adjacent to him, his own glass in his hand. Though, Loki noticed with a hard swallow, his wine tended to cling to the edges of the glass, leaving a thick residue behind.

“In truth, I’ve always found myself much more drawn to the Americas than Europe. Europe is just so—boring. It doesn’t change. Same old castles, same old monarchies, same old witch hunts. Where is the variety, you know? But here, oh wowee, there is something new going on every decade.” 

Loki had zoned out when En had started ranting about the best fabrics to make a waistcoat out of, so it would be a lie to say that he wasn’t extremely lost in this conversation. Not that En seemed to really mind. If anything, Loki thought he enjoyed a silent partner that just let him rant, no matter what comments he made about loving Loki’s ability to talk back. Loki had even stopped nodding at the right times about two centuries back in this conversation.

“You’ve hardly touched your wine. Do you not like it? I have some white around somewhere. Or maybe you’d rather a nice aged whiskey?” 

Loki shook his head, taking a small sip just to appease him.

“No, no. It’s very nice. I’m just not much of a drinker, in all honesty.” In reality, Loki was an absolute lightweight, but he was far from going to admit that right now.

“Ah. Well, ease up a little. Not many people live long enough to drink wine from the 1850′s. Enjoy it.”

Ha. Really, Loki couldn’t imagine relaxing enough to enjoy anything in En’s presence.

“How’s that brother of yours?” 

“Fine,” Loki answered, taking another gulp of wine. 

“Is he working for you tonight?” 

En tilted his head. “No, not that I know of. Unless my own brother rented him out which is doubtful. I like to be nice and give my guys the weekend off. It’s the best feeding time. So many people partying at funky clubs, drinking, loosening their inhibitions...” The Grandmaster inched closer, eyes trailing up Loki’s side. 

“...being more open and inviting for new experiences. Are you adventurous, Loki?”

“Um. No. Not exactly,” he attempt to shift a bit to the side but this couch was rather small. 

“Shame. Does that mean Mr. Big Blond Muscles never fed off you?” 

Loki debated his answer. Which would get him out of here alive and which would have him leaving in a body bag? For once, he went with the truth. Demure and innocent might gain him some points, might give him an out.

“No. No, of course not.”

“But you want him to, don’t you? It’s so obvious. But he never gives you what you want, does he? He doesn’t satisfy that curious nature of yours.” 

Loki closed his eyes. If Thor was this close to him, Loki wouldn’t mind. If Thor’s breath was on his neck Loki would welcome it. If Thor depended on Loki for blood, for his substance, for his very life force, Loki would hardly say no.

There were few things Loki would say no to when it came to Thor.

Realization of this made the obvious more pressing: 

 He needed to leave.

Now.

“Grandmaster, while I thank you for a wonderful evening, I think I better get…”

“Going? C’mon, Loki. The party is just getting started. We have all eternity to get to know each other.” A cold hand landed on his shoulder and Loki froze. Is this what prey felt like? Unable to move even as Death looked you in the face with a grin.

The Grandmaster boxed him in and picked up his wrist, placing a small kiss on the pulse point before biting down with absolutely no warning. It was a bazaar sensation and Loki felt the room closing in within seconds. 

Red wine. Red wine. Red wine is good for you. It thins your blood, it makes it harder for blood to clot. It prevents heart attacks. It. It…

_ ‘No, Loki. I won’t let anyone eat you…’  _ Thor had said that. Thor was Loki’s eternity. Thor would never hurt him. 

“Stop. I said…I said stop!”

_ ‘I just want this to be your decision and your decision alone. No pressure from me…’  _

Had his brother said that with a smile or with a serious glint in his eye? Loki couldn’t remember. There was so much he couldn’t remember. So much. But he could remember Thor’s eyes, the worry that would sometimes replace the joy there. The love that sparkled.

Thor would never hurt him. Thor loved him too much to ever do such a thing.

“Get off… En…”  Loki pushed, the Grandmaster not budging at first. His heart started beating out of his chest, the shadows on the corner of his vision slowly started creeping in until his sight seemed like just a pin point. Loki was dying...

_ ‘I’m going to go talk to the Grandmaster and then I’m going to kill him…’ _

“No!” Loki screamed. It felt as if lightning and frost filled his fingers, shooting outwards with the might of a storm. When Loki next opened his eyes, the world stilling for just a moment, the only thing he could focus on was the Grandmaster, flung against the other side of the couch, his features frozen, literally unmoving, eyes unseeing in a mask of surprise. 

Loki didn’t stay long enough to question it. He ran to the door, wrist stinging, and flung it open. He ran. He ran as fast as he could. To the safest place he could think of.

Loki ran to his brother.

 

He didn’t know how long it took, but the world was once again a merry go round by the time he reached Thor’s front door, banging his fist against the wood until it was ripped open by a disheveled looking Thor. Without question or judgement, Thor dragged him inside and laid him down onto the couch. The worry radiating off of him, the soft touches, the look of pure love sent Loki over the edge and before Thor could get a word in, Loki gave up. 

“I don’t want him.”

The words were heavy on Loki’s tongue, spurting out into the ether like an artery cut by a knife. 

“Wha–”

“—I don’t want him, I want you.” 

There. He admitted it. The knot in his stomach unraveled but he still felt as though he was sinking like a stone. Thor stared at him in a deafening silence, the air buzzing. Oh gods, Thor wasn’t going to want him anymore. Thor was going to leave, change his number, move to a new country, and all Loki would be left with would be a chasm of loss. Ever growing, too big to ever fill. This was a mistake, this was a huge mistake. He should have buried it deep down like he did with everything else. He should have, he should have…

_ Oh.  _

 Suddenly Thor was kissing him. 

Without Loki noticing, Thor moved forward, closing the space between them that neither could longer bare. And, just like that, Thor was kissing him. 

It felt so different than with the Grandmaster. It felt like he was on fire, like he was a shooting star burning through the atmosphere and Thor was the black hole that was about to swallow him up. It felt right. 

When Thor pulled away, Loki’s body followed. Dizzy. He was dizzy. Large hands caught him by the shoulders before he could fall onto his face. Loki could hear his name being called but it’s far away and  he responded just a beat too late. 

“Can I stay with you tonight?” Loki asked, playing with the collar of Thor’s shirt. Thor felt warm for once. The boom of his brother’s voice vibrates up his chest. It was a struggle to comprehend what he was saying, but Thor gave Loki little choice, shaking him lightly.

“Loki?  _ Loki _ —how much did he take?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this was the point of the story that I decided to twist it into Thor/Loki. This was the 'alternative' route as it was originally a willing Loki being turned by the GM. But, after writing it, I felt like everything before it had led up to Thor and Loki and I couldn't resist. Whoops. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy!


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